Finland | Camino Bay Books

2022 The Northern Route – Helsinki

Robin — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 13:30:36 +0000

3 October: Can’t say why but I developed a beginning affection toward Helsinki. The area of the city where my hotel was and where I did my walking, which is said to be city center, is typical big city in many ways but car traffic isn’t so bad, trolleys seem everywhere (who cannot like trolleys?), there’re many sidewalk cafes, most buildings are old and venerable…that doesn’t seem like much but I still felt more positive about it than I did Oslo or Reykjavik. More trees, I think, for one thing. Locals describe Helsinki as small, and objectively I’m sure it is relative to many major cities (except compared to Reykjavik, whose central area I didn’t try to locate), but it’s still busy, has plenty of pedestrians, and definitely has the air of big city about it. For whatever reasons, I liked it; wouldn’t want to live there but nice place to visit. It probably also helped that I got out of town yesterday to hike and canoe in beautiful country.

Photo by Tapio Haaja on Unsplash

2022 The Northern Route – Nuuksio National Park

Robin — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 13:30:30 +0000

2 October: The travel agent arranged a guide to take me to Nuuksio National Park, a tiny park (barely over 50 square km) northwest of Helsinki. We canoed across a small lake, hiked for a couple hours, and canoed back. I usually feel intimacy and affection for places in Nature where I can quietly be even for short periods, and this was no different. Average rainfall around Helsinki is only 27” so it’s interesting to see how much difference even that makes in landscapes not dealing with heat, and at a time like now when they’ve not had as much rain as usual. I am strongly drawn to the groundcover in places like this: multiple varieties of berry, plenty of moss (several inches thick in places), and lichen of species I’m not acquainted with; some are in the cup lichen family and stand a few inches high and, according to my guide, are a favorite food of reindeer farther north. So the cover is rich and damp and seems anxious to surmount anything around it, including large boulders, many of which are completely enclosed in moss out of which grow many of the same plants as when it’s on ground. Wondrous! The trees are mostly Scots Pine, which is new to me (not surprising since it doesn’t occur at home) despite acquaintance with innumerable Pinus species I’ve met around the U.S., birch, and spruce. Most of Finland was logged over the centuries and it does not appear to me there’s anything left big enough to turn into lumber, although they call forest that’s achieved much age old growth. In short, the trees along my hike were abundant but not tall and the groundcover rich and beguiling. There were ravines and granite outcroppings as well that added to the overall interest of the place. A good time was had. I should also add that the lake was the kind I’ve always loved: surrounded by forest growing to its edge, clear water, only a few docks sticking out, and because it’s national park for most of its circumference, only a few cabins, a quiet meditative place.

Photo by SaiKrishna Saketh Yellapragada on Unsplash

2022 The Northern Route – Autumn in Helsinki

Robin — Tue, 04 Jul 2023 13:30:08 +0000

1 October: Arrived by train in Helsinki yesterday evening. The terrain between Rovaniemi and Helsinki didn’t change noticeably from what I’d seen before. As I’ve learned both visually and by talking to Finns, this is not a mountainous country; I think someone said the highest peak is only a little over a thousand meters, and most of the rest is rolling hill and valley without significant relief. Still, the fall colors were very nice and my seatmate on the train showed me pictures on her laptop from a recent hike in a national park; even without mountains or even many trees, the color, the low-growing foliage I so much admire, and the unbroken landscape were pleasing to see. When I was in Imani a guide took me out to an area along a river; pretty much the usual topography, with mostly pines mixed with some birch and spruce, but the groundcover attracts me strongly—low-growing, as expected, with a variety of mosses, grasses, and forbs, lichen-covered rocks, when they aren’t, like the tree stumps, grown completely over by the cover plants; astonishing richness, plants that use their short growing season and its very long days to best advantage—knowing better than to go high but using their few inches above ground in what is surely the best possible way. The trees are all about the same height, 30’-40’ and according to the guide about 50 years old. She didn’t know why they were the same height, but I can think of no explanation other than logging or some other area-wide destructive event.

Photo by Tapio Haaja on Unsplash